LEARNING ENGLISH

1./ THE DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING ENGLISH AND HOW TO OVERCOME THEM

The difficulties in learning English and how to overcome them

Beginners of foreign language always meet difficulties from the outset. For me, I had to overcome these problems when I started learning English.

English pronunciation is my first obstacle. The pronunciation in English puzzles me a lot because the same letter has different sounds. For example the letter “a” in “bath” is not pronounced in the same way of that in “bathe”. The “ou” in “South” is also different from “ou” in “Southern”. Generally verbs and nouns are pronounced differently although they are written the same. Record is a good example to illustrate it.

In order to solve this puzzling question I carefully study The A.P.A (The International Phonetic Alphabets) which helps me pronounce English words correctly.

In order to have an accent just like the native speakers, I often listen to tapes and repeat after them, trying to imitate them. Moreover, my everyday conversation with the foreigners I meet in the street will enable me to acquire a proper accent.

Compared with French, English grammar is much easier. However, this does not mean that learners meet no difficulties in learning it. It took me a long time to learn how to master the tenses in English grammar, to endeavor to do as many grammar exercises as possible and read various grammar books.

In writing English, English language has its own style. In order to drill writing skills, I have tried to read famous novels of distinguished America and English writers. I enjoy the humorous style of writing in Mark Twain’s masterpieces, the elaborate and polished style of George Eliot and the sentimental and lyrical style of John Keats.

After long and hard years of English study, how pleased I feel when I am able to read English and American authors without any obstacles and difficulties at all.

2./ Why I want to learn EnglishThe outline:1. The beginning2. How important it is3. How much it is used – Why?4. How it helps us5. The end

English is considered to be the most common and important language of the world today. A great number of people understand and use English in every part of the world.

English is the most useful language. Being good at English, we can travel to any place or any country we like. We shall not find it hard to make others understand what we wish to say.

English also helps us to learn all kinds of subjects. Hundreds of books are written in English every day in all countries to teach people useful things. The English language has therefore helped to spread ideas and knowledge to all the corners of the world. There is no subject that cannot be learned in the English language.

As English is used so much everywhere in the world, it has helped to make countries of the world become friendlier with one another. The leaders of the world use English to understand one another. The English language has therefore spread better understanding and friendship among countries of the world.

Lastly, as a person who knows English easily get more knowledge from many parts of the world, he or she is respected by people. It is for all these reasons that I want to learn English.

3./ The reasons for your study of English and the ways you have been learning it

It cannot be denied that today English is the most widely used language in the world. It has been used in all spheres of public activity. Because of its importance I have chosen English as the second language after my mother tongue.

In fact, English has become the international language. If I master this language I can go to any continent in the world: Asia, Europe, Africa, America and Australia. Everywhere people speak English. Because of its popularity, innumerable books have been written in English; so one of my ways of improving my English is to read books on a variety of subjects: science, sociology, anthropology, geology, entomology, political science and so on. If I read books on one or two subjects only my vocabulary will not increase fast enough. Therefore I try my best to accumulate as many vocabularies as possible by reading about different subjects because each subject has its own vocabularies. The more subjects I read in English the more words I can acquire to express my ideas and thoughts with great ease and satisfaction.

I have dreamed of becoming a tourist guide one day. In order to realize this hope I should read more books on traveling and learn more vocabulary on different aspects. Standing before one of my historical vestiges, how can I tell my tourists about the history of my country and the courageous struggles of my people during the period of founding the nation and defending it against foreign invaders if I am not able to obtain any knowledge, any words on this domain?

After French, English is a living language because of its vitality and lucidity. Thanks to these characteristics, English has been used in all important meetings and conferences or in summit talks between leaders of powerful countries. To acquire correct and fluent English I should learn the basic rules of English Grammar and practice speaking English regularly with my friends and my teachers. “Practice makes perfect”. I should frequently listen to native English speakers through videos, television and radio. Whenever I find a new word whose pronunciation I do not know I should look it up in the “Every man’s English Pronouncing Dictionary” by Daniel Jones, a very precious dictionary for English beginners.

Being aware of the preeminence of the English language in every aspect of man’s activity, I have been learning it with great zeal and avidity.

4./ Men who learn English as a foreign language often say that writing is more difficult than any other skills. As the fact of the matter, most native speakers of the language have to make their efforts themselves to write accurately and effectively even on what they are well aware of. Needless to say, it is not easy at all for a non-native speaker to do something that an average native speaker usually considers a difficult job to do. Here are three reasons which, in my opinion, can answer the question why writing becomes the most difficult skills.

Firstly, writing requires good grammar. A non-native person has to remember a large number of rules in structure which are quite different from their own language. This is a very big problem if he or she learns the grammar with an English native teacher at the beginning. The teacher cannot help to point out the distinct differences between the two languages. In this case, the learner must figure out the differences themselves and even outline some rules to convert from their own language to the target language.Secondly, people are often known to spend less time to write than to listen, to speak and even to listen. Learners learning the language in their country are proved to read more than any other skills while learners learning overseas must listen to the language most of their time. In any cases, they spend little of their time for writing. It is clearly known that an average person spend the most for listening, the second most for speaking, then reading and finally writing.

Thirdly, when students of English as a foreign language write something, they have a big question in mind whether what they write is correct or incorrect. Who can answer the question for them and help them recognize the mistakes. It is, in many cases, the teacher who is teaching them and is ready to give them a hand.

The problem however I want to mention is that the teacher does not have enough time to correct for all of them if there are more than ten students in the class. When the teacher corrects the writing for just some of them, the other students cannot recognize their own mistakes. Without correction, the mistakes may be repeated many times and become bad habits which are hard to adjust.

In conclusion, writing is the most difficult skill that learners of any foreign language may face. To be good at it, learners must give much effort.

5./ The advantages and disadvantages in teaching English to Adult Learners in the Current Situation in Vietnam

A brief look at the current English language teaching and learning context in Vietnam will show that the demand for English learning is very great. This is clearly seen in the multitude of institutions and centers that offer English courses as well as in the great number of learners who go to English classes. Among these learners adult learners form a big special group. Due to some of their characteristics the teaching of English to this group of adult learners has some

advantages and disadvantages as follows.

The first advantage is that adult learners have some degree of extrinsic motivation. They may study English for a variety of reasons but they all do so because they want to or need to. For some students, the motivation may be in the form of integrative motivation because they wish to integrate themselves into the culture of an English-speaking country like Britain, America, Canada or Australia. For others, the motivation is instrumental in the sense that the mastery of the English language is seen as an instrument that can bring them a better job or position. When these adult students go to class with some motivation they are easier to teach than those who bring no motivation to the classroom.

The second advantage is that adult students can transfer those study skills and learning strategies they have acquired in their first language to their study of English. Unlike children and adolescents, adults are autonomous in some way. They have finished their studies or have undertaken at least some in their own language, so they must have gained some basic skills like reading, summarizing, identifying and applying formulae and information and such critical thinking skills as analyzing, synthesizing, hypothesizing, speculating, etc. Moreover, they may also have some well-established strategies for learning. Therefore, the English language teacher can make his job easier by creating conditions for adult students to reactivate these study skills and learning strategies and apply them to their study of a new language.

One more advantage is that adult learners can make use of whatever kind of knowledge they have accumulated in their own language. Again this advantage cannot be seen in other groups of learners like children and adolescents. First, adult learners have extensive experience of using a language, which is their mother tongue. Now that they start learning English, they can remember the new langue system better by making use of what they know about their own language. It is not uncommon to see learners comparing and contrasting their first language with the foreign language they are learning to find out areas in which the two languages are different or similar so that they can learn the new language more quickly. Second, adult students’ life experience, world knowledge and specialist knowledge can contribute much to their learning a foreign language. It can help them a lot when they have to read about or discuss complex or controversial topics in English. So the English teacher can engage adult learners more easily if he knows how to tap the knowledge they have gained over time.

On the contrary, there are some disadvantages to the teaching of English to adult

students as well. The first disadvantage is that English learning makes a strong demand on adult learners in terms of time. As a matter of fact, it is really difficult for adult students to make time to learn English. As most institutions and centers teach English in the evening adult students have to study after work. Three one-hour-and-a-half sessions or three three-hour sessions a week seem not to add up to a lot of time but not all adult students can manage to set aside that much time for study purposes. The simple reason is that they all have their own lives to live outside the classroom or they all have other commitments in life than learning English. As a result, some students fail to invest as much time and effort in learning as they should. Of course, teachers will have difficulty in monitoring the performance and progress of those students who cannot attend class regularly.

Another factor that can interfere with or even impede adult students’ learning English is their fear of failure and frustration with lack of progress. As can be seen, some adult students are very successful professionals or have a high status at their work place. And now, at school they are just normal students coping with tasks, assignments, examinations, etc. as they have been successful in their career, they do not want to fail to achieve their desired goal of mastering English. They may therefore put themselves under unnecessary stress if they do not give themselves enough time to achieve their goals or if they set themselves unrealistic goals. Other students may be hard on themselves in a different way. For example, adult intermediate and advanced students, those who already know a lot, may find progress difficult to perceive. In this case, the teacher has more work to do: they must help these students get the level of challenge right or view success in a broader sense.

In addition, the lack of well-qualified teachers and the poor physical conditions of the classrooms at some English language schools and centers can be damaging to student motivation. Currently, in Vietnam a great number of institutions and centers provide English courses and they range form universities and their satellite centers, joint-venture centers, privately-owned centers to privately-run home-based classes. Such proliferation of schools and centers is useful in the sense that it offers students a wide variety of programs to choose from. However, because of a lack of quality control, the reality of some schools and centers may fall short of student expectations. Some teachers are untrained or inexperienced, delivering boring or uninteresting lessons; the physical classroom conditions and resources for learning are just basic. All this cannot of course supply students in general and adult students in particular with any intrinsic motivation, a crucial factor for successful language learning.

In general, this analysis of the current teaching context for adult learners of English in Vietnam in general and of the characteristics of this group of learners in particular partly reflects the increasing need for English language learning and mainly shows the advantages and disadvantages that adult students have in their English study. Both teachers and students need to be aware of these findings of the analysis so that they can find ways to maximize the advantages and minimize the disadvantages. Only in this way can teachers deliver quality English language programs for students to benefit from.

6./ Nowadays, everybody is very fond of learning a foreign language. However, successful men are seldom. In your opinion, what is the basic factor?

The most difficult thing for a person to accept when he begins to learn a foreign language is that the foreign language is so different from his own. Of course, he expects to find some differences; it may sometimes seem to him that some of the differences are completely unnecessary.

A person’s native language has a powerful influence on him. After all, he has been speaking his language since before he can remember. His family, his friends, even complete strangers – everyone around him uses that language. Under such circumstances, it is only natural that a person would have the feeling that his language is the most beautiful, the most perfect and the most logical of all languages.

Therefore, the first thing that one must learn as he begins to study a foreign language is that, each language is the best possible language for the people who use it. We would not expect a person from India to think and act exactly like a person from France. And we should not expect the languages of India to be exactly like the French language. After this fact has been understood and accepted, many of the problems in language learning disappear.

There are other attitudes which you will have to develop in order to learn a language successfully. The most important of these is that learning a language requires constant practice. You must not think that because you have seen or heard a word or phrase one time, or five times or ten times, that you really know it and know how to use it. You must be ready to repeat new lessons again until you can really use them, automatically, without having to think about them.

Many students have the idea that if they can memorize long list of vocabulary

words they will be learning the language. Learning a language is much more than that. In the early stage of studying a language, we must learn more important things, such as pronunciation and grammatical structure. After the student can use the grammatical structure, he can then begin to increase his vocabulary. Learning new vocabulary without knowing the grammatical structure of the language is something like trying to build a house without using a plan.

Another important thing to remember is that it is not necessary to begin with a lot of reading or writing in the foreign language. Reading and writing lead to many very special problems which may complicate learning for the beginning student.

The most important thing of all in learning a language is to have patience. If you keep working steadily, day after day, constantly practicing the language and using it at every opportunity, you will learn to speak a language well.

7./ Is it true that one who is good at English grammar can write well in English?(Acquisition of good writing skills requires more than Mastery of English Grammar)

In the English language teaching writing is called a productive skill because it is concerned with the production of the language. The teaching and learning of this specific skill has provoked much discussion about the question of how to write well in English. Some people may think that a good knowledge of English grammar is sufficient to enable them to achieve a high level of competence in written English. However, this is a somewhat simplistic view. As will be analyzed below, the acquisition of good writing skills requires not just a good command of the grammatical system of English but a wide lexical knowledge, a thorough understanding of the topic given and a repertoire of organizational skills.

Apart from a good knowledge of English grammar, one needs to demonstrate a broad lexical knowledge in a good piece of writing. There is an element of truth in the fact that grammar rules help to generate sentences. However, if the writer has no real understanding of the lexis of the English language and just applies the grammatical rules mechanically, he will run the risk of producing grammatically correct but semantically inappropriate or anomalous sentences. To use the English language with clarity and precision, he needs to know what words mean literally and figuratively, what words can collocate and how words, though synonymous, are different form each other in subtle ways. Therefore, the writer’s ability to manipulate structures and his word choice are both needed for the appropriate use

of language. For example, while one can write ‘Sorry, I can’t make it’ in response to a friend’s invitation he must formulate his refusal to a business partner more formally ‘I apologize I will not be able to be there.’ In other words, structural accuracy is just as important as vocabulary selection in effective writing.

Next, one needs to rely on one’s general and/or specialist knowledge to develop the topic given in depth to produce an original piece of writing. If one’s mastery of English grammar can partly help shape the form of a piece of writing, it is the ideas presented that decide the content. A good writer does not write merely to reach the word limit (within the time limit); he must write to achieve his purpose, whether to narrate a story, to describe someone or something, to discuss a topic, to inform or to persuade the reader. The best way for him to do this is to ensure that the content of his paper is excellent. He is therefore expected to exploit whatever kind of knowledge he has acquired, be it his general knowledge, his knowledge of current affairs or his specialist knowledge to come up with brilliant ideas that can attract and maintain readers’ attention. As the writer is not in direct contact with readers and cannot therefore get direct feedback from them, he cannot afford to be vague. He has to elaborate his ideas or explanations to get his message across, leaving no scope for misunderstanding or interpretation of any type. This makes an enormous demand on the writer indeed. So in his treatment of the subject assigned, the writer has to draw on the above mentioned areas of his knowledge, which are by nature different from his knowledge of English grammar, to search for worthwhile ideas and arguments.

In addition, one needs to know a number of generally called organizational skills which are essential for the production of a fine piece of writing. Viewed as a process, writing involves the following major skills. The skill of much use during the first stage is that of planning. Before starting off, the writer has to envisage how he would like to go about his writing assignment. He has to take into consideration all the resources he has at his disposal (such as time, vocabulary, language, structures, his understanding of the topic) to make a detailed plan as to how to turn out the end product: a letter, a story, s description, a report, an essay, a term paper, etc. Next comes the skill of much importance here, the skill of paragraphing. After a brainstorming session in the planning stage, the writer may have hit on many ideas and now it is time for him to select and organize those that are really relevant to the topic under discussion. The organization of ideas requires a clear understanding of the discourse structure of the target language, which is English in this case. Here the non-native writer is expected to go beyond the realm of grammar to explore the realm of discourse. For example, he needs to acquaint himself with a variety of genres or styles produced by native writers so that he

knows what is expected of him when he writes in English. Besides, the skill of structuring discourse is often coupled with the skill of using liking devices. It is because ideas must not only be grouped together but also developed in logical and coherent paragraphs. Then the skills of drafting, editing and proofreading come into play. The writer has to work on his draft to revise his ideas and check for spelling and punctuation. Only when all the necessary changes have been made can the writer be sure that his end product is ready for ‘publication’.

In general, writing is not an easy skill to get native speakers of English. As can be seen above, the mastery of the skill demands different areas of knowledge such as vocabulary, world knowledge and specialist knowledge and organizational skills in addition to that of grammar. Thus a wide knowledge of English grammar is a necessary condition, not the only necessary and sufficient condition for the acquisition of the writing skill. A high level of written English can only be achieved when one puts huge efforts in building up his knowledge of the areas mentioned above.

8./ Ways to help students enlarge their vocabulary

It is a self-evident truth that a good command of a language requires a knowledge of both its grammar and vocabulary as structural patterns serve as building blocks that hold lexical items together. Therefore, in addition to teaching grammatical rules, English teachers must help their students enlarge their vocabulary. This will not come as a daunting task to language teachers if they know that they can offer assistance to their students in their vocabulary learning and vocabulary expansion in the following ways.

Teachers can first help by raising students’ awareness of the importance of vocabulary learning and expansion. As can be seen, not all students are fully conscious of the necessity of having a wide vocabulary of English. Some students may emphasize the acquisition of linguistic structures over that of vocabulary because the former, in their opinion, can help them operate effectively in English. However, it is not difficult to find cases in which it is words, not grammatical structures that help one get his message across. For example, a speaker can still make himself understood even though he produces a grammatically incorrect sentence like ‘Yesterday I meet mine old friend’. Therefore, language teachers should give priority to making students aware of the important role that vocabulary plays in language learning. Only when students realize the significance of knowing the lexis of a language will they make effort to learn words and increase their vocabulary.

Second, teachers can help students enrich their vocabulary by teaching words in context. The reasons for this technique are not difficult to understand. For one thing, the environment in which a word occurs with other words that will decide which meaning of the word is intended. Lexical items should thus not be presented to student in isolation; they should be presented in clear and meaningful contexts so that students can work out which sense of the word concerned in used. For another thing, students will get into the habit of guessing the meaning of new or unknown words form context, a badly needed skill for their vocabulary expansion. It is because when they first encounter new vocabulary items students will rely on the context as a clue to their intended meaning. In this way the meaning or use of the word will be retained longer in their mind.

Moreover, teachers can promote students’ vocabulary learning and expansion by teaching words in relation to other words. It is highly recommended that specific words such as red, blue, yellow should be related to the generic term color, that words like happy should compared with happily, happiness, unhappy, unhappily and unhappiness, that words like book should be extended to notebook, textbook and handbook and that acceptable combinations like headache, earache, stomachache should be identified as opposed to illegitimate ones like eye ache or throat ache. In other words, teachers do not simply teach certain words as discrete lexical items; teachers have to present words in a network established by such language phenomena as sense relations word formation and collocation. An additional teaching tip is that teachers can present vocabulary in categories of words depending on topics. Teachers can ask students to keep a notebook to record words in different sections for different themes or topics so that they can develop their vocabulary systematically. In this sense, students not only learn, for example, a single word happy but several connected forms like happily, happiness, unhappy, unhappily and unhappiness and other words referring to human emotional states like glad, pleased, sad, and depressed. This will certainly lead to a massive increase in the number of words students learn and acquire.

One more thing that teachers can do to help their students to widen their vocabulary is to train them in dictionary using skills. Naturally, teachers cannot provide students with all the words they need. So dictionaries will serve as their best source of reference outside class time. And that is the reason why students should be given practice in using dictionaries. Teachers can start by recommending a good bilingual dictionary such as an Oxford or Cambridge or Longman learners’ dictionary. Certainly, a monolingual dictionary has a role to play but an English – English dictionary would expose learners more to the language. As learners’

dictionaries often define more complex words by means of simpler words, students can get at the meaning without switching back to their mother tongue. What is more, as easy and familiar words are used to explain new words, the former are recycled, thus facilitating students’ comprehension and acquisition of the latter. Then teachers can spend some of their class time showing students how to use the dictionary they have recommended. For example, they can set exercises in which students have to look up some new words from their reading or listening texts. This will force them to get to know the symbols and abbreviations used in the dictionary and to choose the most appropriate meaning of the words from a range of meanings listed in the dictionary.

In conclusion, there are just a few ways in which teachers can help their students enlarge their vocabulary. It is hoped that with the help and guidance from the teacher, students can first discover the value of vocabulary learning and expansion in language learning and then develop strategies to increase their vocabulary.

9./ Talk about your teacher of English

Miss Wilde is our teacher of English this term. She has been teaching in our school for three years ever since her return from London, but I have never attended her classes before.

She is rather tall for a lady, about twenty-four years of age, and I find her really slender. She puts on a little make up in very discreet manner. Though young and attractive in appearance, she is dignified and reserved. She is somewhat strict at times, but never too severe or stern. Her patience is wonderful she will never give up explaining until every one of us understands.

Her method of teaching differs somewhat from that of our former teacher. She pays much attention in correcting our pronunciation and drills us in expressing ourselves in short English sentences. At the end of each lesson, she gives us assignments and lets us work out ourselves. Her method means more work for us to do in the evening, as we have to consult the dictionary again and again; but this help us to remember the new words and phrases and we feel that we have been making rapid progress.

Though my teacher is sometimes severe, yet her kindness and gentility always commands our respect.

10./ Should all errors made by foreign language learners be corrected at any cost?(Overcorrection should be avoided at any cost)

Error correction may prove to be a difficult task to language teachers because it involves decision-making about what to correct, when to correct, how to correct and how much to correct. Several approaches to correcting student errors have been suggested. One of them holds that all errors made by learners should be corrected at any cost. On the surface, this approach seems to be of much benefit to students. However, a close examination will reveal that this approach to error correction will do students more harm than good.

The first reason that teachers will undermine students’ confidence if they correct student mistakes all the time. It is not difficult to realize the demotivating effect of this overcorrection. Perhaps there is nothing more disconcerting or intimidating to students than to be interrupted every time they make a mistake in oral practice. Distracted and discouraged in this way, they may forget what they intend to say or feel that they will never be able to say anything right. The damage that over written correction does to students is no less serious. Most students will feel a sense of failure or defeat when they see their piece of written work covered with red corrections and comments from the teacher. Only very few well-motivated students will not lose heart in this case. Thus the teacher’s over emphasis on accuracy at the expense of fluency or comprehensibility has a detrimental effect on students indeed. It goes against the principle of language teaching that part of the teacher’s job is to support and encourage students, not to discourage or demotivate them.

The second reason is that overcorrection fails to focus students on genuine errors. Apparently, teachers who tend to overcorrect think that all incorrect forms produced by learners are dangerous and need to be fixed. However, their indiscriminate treatment of student errors may backfire because students may not understand what is worth correcting. There are many kinds of errors or mistakes and if all the errors or mistakes are picked up and dealt with, students will assume that they are of equal importance. In reality, some of the inaccuracies produced by learners are just unfortunate mistakes resulting from mere confusion, from lapses of memory, from slips of the tongue or the pen, etc. Given time and help or guidance form the teacher and friends, learners can remedy these mistakes themselves. In contrast, genuine errors reflect students’ lack of knowledge about the target language. For example, they do not know what the correct form or word should be or they believe that what they are saying or writing is correct. In other words, these errors are clear indications of problem areas to students and as such

they should be addressed immediately if teachers do not want them to persist and hinder learning in the long run.

The last and also the most important reason is that teachers who are in favor of constant error correction fail to realize that mistakes are a natural and important part of learning. If teachers insist on putting right anything incorrect in students’ oral and written communication, they will over time reinforce the false belief that mistakes of any type are something to be feared and should be avoided at any cost. However, in so doing, they ignore a very basic fact that even native speakers, those who are supposed to have a good, if not perfect, command of the language, make mistakes all the time. The main reason is that communication, oral or written, is a complex activity. To process the language people have to simultaneously make use of several language systems such as syntax, lexis, phonology. They also need to draw on their communicative competence to use the language appropriately. It is understandable why any instance of using the target language is quite challenging to learners. It is therefore quite unrealistic to ask learners’ speech or written work to be faultless. So teachers have to be open to the fact that mistakes made by learners are natural and inevitable. What is more important, not all mistakes are regrettable and should be condemned; they have a role to play too. As an expert in language teaching puts it, mistakes are sometimes “healthy proof that learning is taking place”. It may sound strange but it is true. A telling example can be found when students are adventurous enough to experiment with the structure or the word or the sound they have just learned instead of sticking to the safe old one. In this case the students’ brave attempt should be encouraged rather than thwarted.

In summary, error correction is an area in which teachers can offer direct service to students. However, they will do their students a grave disservice if they insist on overcorrection. The implication for foreign language teaching is that remedial work done by the teacher should highlight important mistakes to encourage students to use the correct form to improve their performance. Moreover, teachers should be sensitive enough to tolerate some errors, especially those that are evidence of learning taking place. Such an attitude to errors on the part of the teacher will have positive effects on students the most important of which is to boost their confidence and overcome their fear of making mistakes.

11./ Qualities of a good teacher(What makes an ideal teacher)

Teachers play an important part in training children, teenagers and even people in their early maturity. Some qualities of a good teacher that are crucial for

determining one as a good teacher are the teacher’s sound knowledge in his/her major and its related fields, certain devotion to and great love for his/her students and his/her ability to inspire the students’ passion for studying either in or out of class.

There is no doubt that knowledge is a quality/must for a good teacher. In addition to his/her professional knowledge, the teacher need to enlarge his/her general knowledge on culture, society, humanity, psychology, methodology, politics, history, etc. to provide his/her students with what they need to know, satisfy their curiosity and meet their requirements in any case.

Another quality that a good teacher should have is his/her devotion to and great love for those who call him ‘sir’ or her ‘madam’ in class. Generally speaking, the students are not mature enough to behave properly. They are sometimes really stubborn. Consequently, the teacher has to learn how to handle the students’ troubles in a gentle and affectionate manner. He/she should pay adequate attention to the students and know how to keep calm in any situation so that he/she can give the students some advice when they are in need or help them distinguish the right from the wrong.

Last but not least, a good teacher always succeeds in inspiring his/her students’ passion for studying both under his/her guidance in class and out of class by themselves. I highly appreciate this third quality of a good teacher because of its undeniable value. It is not always easy to provide his/her students with all the required knowledge in class; therefore, a good teacher can manage to make the students motivated enough to carry on their active and successful self-study at home. Obviously, teaching his/her students how to study independently, creatively and effectively is what a good teacher must do in any academic setting.

In conclusion, to be a good teacher, anyone who devotes himself/herself to the “coinage” of a succession of young generations must keep on working really hard to enlarge his/her skill and general as well as professional knowledge, to accumulate experience in how to deal with his/her students properly and to be able to inspire in the students the true love, the increasing hope and the ever-lasting enthusiasm to reach higher and higher levels of education in their life. Those are important qualities of a good teacher.

12./ Should teachers give pupils too much homework? Discuss.

Many people now think that teachers give pupils too much homework. They say

that it is unnecessary for children to work at home in their free time. Moreover, they argue that most teachers do not properly plan the homework tasks they give to pupils. The result is that pupils have to repeat tasks which they have already done at school.

Recently many parents complained about the difficult homework which teachers gave to their children. The parents said that most of the homework was a waste of time, and they wanted to stop it. Spain and Turkey are two countries which stopped homework recently. In Denmark, West Germany and several other countries in Europe, teachers cannot set homework at weekends. In Holland, teachers allow pupils to stay at school to do their homework. The children are free to help one another. Similar arrangements also exist in some British schools.

Most people agree that homework is unfair. A pupil who can do his homework in a quiet and comfortable room is in a much better position than a pupil who does his homework in a small, noisy room with the television on. Some parents help their children with their homework. Other parents take no interest at all in their children’s homework.

It is important, however, that teachers talk to parents about homework. A teacher suggests suitable tasks for parents to do with their children. Parents are often better at teaching their own children

13./ INTRODUCE YOURSELF

About yourself

The outline:1. My name – age – address2. My family – how many people – what they do3. What I do – what I like, etc.4. What I wish to be when I grow up – Why?5. The end

I am an Indian boy. My name is Sanjay. I am fourteen years old. I live in the town of Klang.

I have three sisters and two brothers. My sisters are older than I am. My brothers are younger than I. they all go to school. My father is a teacher. He is not very old. My mother works at home. She is a very nice lady. I love her very much.

I go to a school in the town. It is a large school. I learn many lessons in school, such as English, Bahasa Malaysia and many others. Of all these lessons I find English is the most difficult to learn. But I enjoy learning English. It is a beautiful and important language.

I play all kinds of games. The game I like most is football. I play football with my friends every day. Football is a very interesting game.

When I grow up I wish to be a teacher. If I become a teacher, I can teach hundreds of boys and girls. I can help them to read and write and become cleverer. At the same time, I too can learn many more things. I hope that I will get my wish.

My friends are of many races. Some are Chinese, some are Malaysian and some are Indian. I like my friends very much. I am indeed a very happy boy. I hope that I shall always be happy.

14./ What difficulties are you facing in choosing a career?

Almost every school leaver is confronted with a very important question that is nearly impossible to answer: The question of what to do next. As for me, I was bugged by my plans for the future from the very moment I finished my last examinations. In addition, there is also the question of passing time during the few months of waiting for my results. During this time, I had a choice of enjoying myself or looking for a temporary job or even taking up an interesting course, I did all three of them. Unfortunately I was not successful in getting to a university, so I had to enter the job market.

I had always desired to take up teaching as a career. First of all I love children. Secondly I believe teachers are important people as they groom the citizens of tomorrow. As I grew older my exposure to the outside world has made me believe that there are many other careers that could interest me. I believe that I am facing the problem or psychological changes that any teenager would be facing during the period from childhood to adulthood.

I tried relief teaching during my holidays in search of the teaching career. The experience I had was valuable as I managed to grasp the duties, responsibilities and challenges of a teacher. I discovered my lack of working experience. Since I gathered quite a lot of information from the short period of teaching, I decided that

I could choose any career by working on a temporary basis. The successful stories of how some people started off doing only odd jobs in beginning spurred me on. However this does not seem possible in the present gloomy economic situation. I also face of another problem where employers are not too keen in employing job hoppers like me.

My third problem concerns professional skills. For instance a secretary or computer programmer requires a certain level of knowledge in the field of typing, filing, shorthand and computer programming. These prerequisites can only be achieved through comprehensive courses. My concern is over which I should acquire and discover the abilities inherent in me.

These are the problems I face in choosing a career like other school leavers. I believe parents play an important role in choosing a career by allowing the children to expose themselves to part-time jobs. This way they can narrow down their career choices more easily. Seminars, talks or discussions on careers can also help.

15./ Today there is some changes in the educational system. In your opinion, how should we change to raise the quality teaching?

Education is to draw the best in children and to develop their faculties. Education is a complicated affair as it is supposed to equip children for life. Since life styles are always changing, the contents of education must also be changed accordingly. The school is supposed to provide necessary experiences to the child. When a child leaves the school, he may lead a useful life.

But in the traditional school, the child was supposed to learn mainly the 3 R’s. So the chalk bard and the text books were the main stay of the teacher who was to shape the character of the child. Rote memory was insisted upon and examinations were based on this learning technique. There was not much of a difference from year to year on the way children were tested. The examinations conducted did not test all the faculties of the child. So, it was necessary for those who got through examinations to be trained afterwards. In short, children were very rarely taught to learn for themselves. This had continued for so long and the practice had to be abolished.

Once this was realized, many new methods of teaching were tired and many new aids had been used for a better education of children. Today the school is a very complicated organization; the teacher is no longer the sole arbiter. The children,

instead of being passive listeners, have been made active participants. They are handling, feeling, planning, creating and learning with newer tools and aids. The subjectivity has give place to healthy objectivity.

In order to make education relevant and meaningful, children are exposed to almost life like situations. They must know how to live as good citizens and honest members of society. They must know how to live as good citizens and honest members of society. The way the school creates situations with these ends in views is important.

On the intellectual side, the library and the laboratory must play a vital role. They complement and supplement more and more, and the use of library and the laboratory must be encouraged through proper assignments. The playing field, various camps, many organizations like the Junior Red Cross, etc. have to be fully utilized to shape the character of the child. Beside the text books, there are other aids for learning. They much be judiciously used. In fact, there are hundreds of ways in which the audio-visual aids can be used with advantage.

Examinations must not be used to show weakness but must be a yardstick for proving the all-round education of the student. The questions must be objective and reliable. The examinations must be welcomed by the students. In order to satisfy the diverse population, there must be diversity in programs, approaches, resources and aims and room for experiment. Examinations should be a challenge for students.

The world is shrinking and nobody can feel parochial. So education must equip students for world understanding and world citizenery. Science and technology must find their places in any scheme of education. Any system of education must help turn out a fully developed and all-rounded personality.

16./ Talk about the things you like most.

There are so many things around us that one finds it hard to have a special preference for a few particular things. I, however, take a special interest in motor-car and television.

Motor-cars have always fascinated me. Since my childhood I have been traveling in motor-cars, and I have visited hundreds of places in this country. I have been to remote villages and almost all the towns, large and small. Travel has broadened my

outlook on life. I have met various types of people, and my knowledge of the people and places of this country has increased greatly. If I am at home or if I am walking along a road, I feel the urge to travel as soon as I see a car.

It is because of motor-cars that I am able to do various types of work. In the morning I go to my school, a long distance away, in my father’s car. After school I go to my father’s plantation to help him in his work. Then I visit one of my classmates and discuss our school work. Sometimes I visit the cinema, miles away. If there were no motor-cars, I would not have seen so much. Even in this small country, I would perhaps not have been able even to attend school.

The next thing that I like is television. Television helps us to watch and listen some of the famous leaders of the world. We are also able to see some of the great events of the day. In addition, we can get news from all parts of the world, and listen to songs and music. Sometimes there are special programs which are very amusing. The television programs become more interesting on a rainy day. We can then sit in the comfort of our home and watch the television program. Even if we cannot read the newspaper for some reason, television keeps us well informed about the latest developments in the world. In this respect, television is better than the radio because the pictures and incidents shown on television convey a better impression than only the spoken words of the radio.

I shall therefore always have a special preference for the motor-car and television.

17./ Which do you think is more valuable – health or wealth? Give your reason

Health, in my opinion, is more valuable than wealth which is only the aftermath of the former.

Men by nature are acquisitive. They all hope to have a pleasant and comfortable life. They spend the whole of their lives keeping up with their neighbors. Tom buys a new color television; his neighbor Peter is bound to buy a bigger and better one. Most of people want to possess all things either with their own money or with money borrowed from credit banks or insurance companies at a suitable rate of interest.

However, once they are drained of strength, exhausted and breathless through their hunt for wealth they all regret having wasted their health and efforts in

worshipping mammon. Wealth, therefore, is not always necessarily bound to bring people’s happiness but it sometimes causes them misfortunes too. Those who are avid of wealth are often dishonest and cunning. They resort to every trick to make money and when they get dishonest earnings, they become addicted to opium, gambling and prostitutes and all their ill – gotten gains will be dissipated – “ill – gotten gains never prosper”. Then they find themselves in a state of distress, their bodies get thinner and thinner, their minds become weaker. They are in the long run parasites on families and society.

On the contrary, good health always brings about happiness. When we are quite fit, strong and healthy, we feel genial, our mind becomes lucid and clear and we think of noble things. If people do not have good health, strong body and an unflinching spirit of enduring and overcoming, they will not be able to turn wilderness into fertile soil which produces tons of food for their dear compatriots. Good health is therefore necessary to happiness and success whereas bad health means misery and continual failures. How can we feel happy when our body is in a morbid state though we are living on a heap of gold!

In conclusion, we should feel no excessive greediness and enthusiasm for wealth but should always maintain good health which is the most valuable thing in life.

18./ How do you relax when you are tired, nervous or angry?

To let off steam is the best thing a person can do when he is tired, nervous or angry. There are ways and means for a person to do that. Usually it depends on the person’s nature. For me, relaxing when I am tired is a must. To start with, I would take a long, luxurious warm bath and wallow in the warmth of the water. The stickiness on my body would be gone by then and I would finish it off with a cold shower, which will leave my skin soft and tingling. Bath completed, time to get myself into a loose fitting garment and there’s nothing better than curling up, with a good book in hand. With the radio on, playing sentimental music and a plate of fresh fruits besides me, I would then take a bite or two between every few pages of reading. Snacks have to be by my side in case I run out of food. Full and contented, taking a nap is the next best thing. Lowering my head, propped with two fluffy pillows, I will be off in dreamland for the rest of the day. When I wake up, I would switch on the television for my favorite shows, stretched full length on the sofa eyes fixed to the set. Sometimes when none of the good shows are on television, my next relaxing routine is just to feel the cool breeze on my face, teasing my hair, relaxing in a park near my house. Life is so beautiful at times.

Tiredness is one thing but nervousness is another. Although I feel nervous at times, especially during examinations, I am not that bad. However, I find that nervousness is something which is difficult to conquer. Some people bite their nails, others twirl their hair around their fingers and a few shift from foot to foot. But for me, to curb nervousness I go for a jog around the evening when the weather is cool and crisp. After which a cold chocolate sundae would top it off. Screaming is the next best thing on my list. Then I’ll have a pillow fight with my sister because with screaming I would feel I had got rid of the tension which is thick enough to cut with a knife. Tension is something that would drain me out if I don’t do anything about it. But when I am not that hysterical, I would go window shopping browsing thoroughly in a particular section I like and if my cash is sufficient, I will buy a few things. If not, browsing won’t hurt. At least it can help me forget my nervousness. It also helps me to enjoy my life while it is still there. Some people are gluttons. I do that sometimes myself and believe it or not, it helps! A lot.

Counting till 100 is my best weapon against anger. I would count very slowly till my anger melts away. But if counting doesn’t help, crying does. It is with crying, you show what you really feel, and when I cry, my anger is washed away by my tears. Crying helps me to relax because I do not keep my feelings bottled up and feel like a nervous wreck deep down. I scream too loudly sometimes so that I throw away my anger at everything especially the walls. As walls can’t fight back, I would feel much better and satisfied like cat getting a saucer of cream. When I am angry, I like to be alone. I can’t bear the sight of anybody and I feel rotten. So the place I would go to is the beach. Listening to the sound of the waves, watching them curl and lap at the beach’s edge, my anger will subside I feel that the beach is a place which symbolizes tranquility, serenity and beauty. I can let my feeling dance with the white horse riding in the water, while I away my time writing poems, day-dreaming. Anger is a very strong weakness which many can’t fight but, no matter how strong it is, it is no match for a thing of beauty. The easy way to get rid of anger is to look at mirror, the wrinkles in forehead, and hardening of cheekbones which is being reflected will immediately bring own anger, you may even try it for good result!

19./ Discuss the view that tolerance is essential for peace and harmony in any community or country.

The progress of any community or country depends largely on the conduct of the

people who reside in it. Discontent, jealousies, prejudices, and intolerance among a few of the people can cause great damage to the whole community or country.

Gregarious by nature, men hate go live in isolation. The urge for association, therefore, enables men to tolerate the views and habits of others, to great extent. Most men have come to realize that the cohesion of society cannot be secured without the exercise of tolerance on the part of its members.

A community or a country is composed of various types of people, whose psychological social and temperamental attitudes and needs are not the same. In a great number of cases, there are fundamental differences even in race, language and religion among the people. This is the result of the economic and social necessities of the modern age, which have compelled people to leave their original homes and live among people of foreign descent. These diversities in a community or country necessitate the maintenance of a tolerant attitude on the part of the people towards one another. They have to respect the cultural and social habits and beliefs of one another and refrain themselves from doing, or saying things which might offend the susceptibilities of some people. The racial and religious clashes that have occurred in various parts of the world indicate the damage that the expression of hatred and prejudice can cause in a country. Even differences in the color of the skin can cause trouble and violence in a community, and when passions are aroused, men lose their reason and sense of proportion and indulge in the most barbaric acts. Innocent lives become the victims of insensate cruelty.

That tolerance is essential for peace and harmony in a country could be illustrated by reference to the people in Malaysia, a country in which people of various races reside. Despite cultural, racial and religious differences among themselves, the people here have lived for generations in peace and harmony. They have also helped one another in various ways at various times. It must be admitted, however, there have been a few incidents from time to time caused by communal differences in certain localities, yet they can hardly be attributed to the development of a new nation, which has become the envy of many countries. The racial unity among the people is the main factor that has contributed to the progress of the country in all spheres of activity.

Another country that deserves mention is the United States of America. The people of this country too are made up of a diversity of races and cultures. Yet, by tolerance, cooperation and goodwill among the people as a whole, it has become the richest country in the world. All this proves what could be achieved by the people of a community or a country who exercise tolerance among themselves

20./ Ways to help students enlarge their vocabulary

It is a self-evident truth that a good command of a language requires a knowledge of both its grammar and vocabulary as structural patterns serve as building blocks that hold lexical items together. Therefore, in addition to teaching grammatical rules, English teachers must help their students enlarge their vocabulary. This will not come as a daunting task to language teachers if they know that they can offer assistance to their students in their vocabulary learning and vocabulary expansion in the following ways.

Teachers can first help by raising students’ awareness of the importance of vocabulary learning and expansion. As can be seen, not all students are fully conscious of the necessity of having a wide vocabulary of English. Some students may emphasize the acquisition of linguistic structures over that of vocabulary because the former, in their opinion, can help them operate effectively inn English. However, it is not difficult to find cases in which it is words, not grammatical structures that help one get his message across. For example, a speaker can still make himself understood even though he produces a grammatically incorrect sentence like ‘Yesterday I meet mine old friend’. Therefore, language teachers should give priority to making students aware of the important role that vocabulary plays in language learning. Only when students realize the significance of knowing the lexis of a language will they make effort to learn words and increase their vocabulary.

Second, teachers can help students enrich their vocabulary by teaching words in context. The reasons for this technique are not difficult to understand. For one thing, the environment in which a word occurs with other words that will decide which meaning of the word is intended. Lexical items should thus not be presented to student in isolation; they should be presented in clear and meaningful contexts so that students can work out which sense of the word concerned in used. For another thing, students will get into the habit of guessing the meaning of new or unknown words form context, a badly needed skill for their vocabulary expansion. It is because when they first encounter new vocabulary items students will rely on the context as a clue to their intended meaning. In this way the meaning or use of the word will be retained longer in their mind.

Moreover, teachers can promote students’ vocabulary learning and expansion by teaching words in relation to other words. It is highly recommended that specific words such as red, blue, yellow should be related to the generic term color, that words like happy should compared with happily, happiness, unhappy, unhappily

and unhappiness, that words like book should be extended to notebook, textbook and handbook and that acceptable combinations like headache, earache, stomachache should be identified as opposed to illegitimate ones like eye ache or throat ache. In other words, teachers do not simply teach certain words as discrete lexical items; teachers have to present words in a network established by such language phenomena as sense relations word formation and collocation. An additional teaching tip is that teachers can present vocabulary in categories of words depending on topics. Teachers can ask students to keep a notebook to record words in different sections for different themes or topics so that they can develop their vocabulary systematically. In this sense, students not only learn, for example, a single word happy but several connected forms like happily, happiness, unhappy, unhappily and unhappiness and other words referring to human emotional states like glad, pleased, sad, and depressed. This will certainly lead to a massive increase in the number of words students learn and acquire.

One more thing that teachers can do to help their students to widen their vocabulary is to train them in dictionary using skills. Naturally, teachers cannot provide students with all the words they need. So dictionaries will serve as their best source of reference outside class time. And that is the reason why students should be given practice in using dictionaries. Teachers can start by recommending a good bilingual dictionary such as an Oxford or Cambridge or Longman learners’ dictionary. Certainly, a monolingual dictionary has a role to play but an English – English dictionary would expose learners more to the language. As learners’ dictionaries often define more complex words by means of simpler words, students can get at the meaning without switching back to their mother tongue. What is more, as easy and familiar words are used to explain new words, the former are recycled, thus facilitating students’ comprehension and acquisition of the latter. Then teachers can spend some of their class time showing students how to use the dictionary they have recommended. For example, they can set exercises in which students have to look up some new words from their reading or listening texts. This will force them to get to know the symbols and abbreviations used in the dictionary and to choose the most appropriate meaning of the words from a range of meanings listed in the dictionary.

In conclusion, there are just a few ways in which teachers can help their students enlarge their vocabulary. It is hoped that with the help and guidance from the teacher, students can first discover the value of vocabulary learning and expansion in language learning and then develop strategies to increase their vocabulary.

21./ How to be successful in life

What we call life is a very complex affair. It is not simply eating. Reproducing and finally dying. Every creature does these. But in the case of man he has to lead a highly complicated life. It is like going through a maze. He is a social being. He has to earn, make a home. Look after his people. Attend to his obligations to the society and the government. So in order to be successful in all these he has to develop certain qualities.

What do we mean by saying a man is successful? If in his occupation he can do satisfactorily both for himself and others then he is successful. He must be able to look after his people and bring up good children. If he becomes a professional man like an engineer, doctor or lawyer, making money should not be the only criterion; he must also able to satisfy his clients and be honest at it

In order to be successful one should develop certain qualities. At first he must realize his purpose; in other words what he would like to be. This is the crux of the problem, for the choice does not come to him. Parents decide it very often for them. Let us suppose he decides to be somebody in his life. Once having decided he must work or attaining certain standard in that line. Only hard work would make him fit for the job. It is rightly said that it is 5% inspiration and 95% perspiration. One must deserve before desiring. One must remember one’s education does not stop with the school or college. It is a life long process. Professional people must keep themselves up to date.

Then one must get on with others. In the chess board of life one may find himself in any position; it maybe the all powerful queen or simply pawn. It must be remembered that given the chance, even a pawn can destroy a queen. This mean in a complex society, everyone find oneself in a particular position; there maybe some above and some below. One need not be favoring and flattering those above and be arrogant with those below. ” what can I do for you” it is correct attitude and having done it go about your duty. In getting on with others sweet temperament is really an asset; then only other will like to transact with one. One must not be easily irritable nor give irritants to others. Then one must be reliable. One must be reliable. One maybe clever but is he is not reliable, he cannot achieve success in a great measure because others will have very little to do with him.

Another important quality that would make up for success is doing things then and there. Procrastination is the thief o time. Postponement of doing things means swelling of work for the next day. A small chink maybe easily closed today but

tomorrow it maybe late. If we analyze the life of successful people we could easily see they have been through and never postponed doing things.

Still another quality is not to argue. By pointing out that, he has been wrong you are not going to improve matters, on the other hand you can help him correct, arguing not only takes away precious time but also cause irritation. Especially one’s superior may not like arguing. Instead of argument, one must be able to meet the situation something like this “you may be right, sir” or “this is alright”, but “what about our alternative” and so on.

One must be capable of learning from experience. One must be able to learn from the mistakes of others. Only when individuals fail to learn from the past mistakes, they are ruined. History is replete with examples.

22./ From what you have learned about English civilization, write an essay on England and the English (the land, its history, tradition and people)

England, or to give its official title, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, lies to the northwest of the Continent of Europe. It consists of one large island, England, Scotland and Wales, part of the neighboring island of Ireland and a large number of smaller islands. The total area of Great Britain is 94,278 square miles and the estimated population is over 51 million.

There is a general belief that British climate is cold, wet and foggy. A thick fog is often used as the setting for a mystery or detective film, but in fact the number of foggy days, even in the worst sports in Britain, is not high compared with most parts of the world. It is everywhere temperate. The climate is a generally healthy one and has given the women and children their lovely complexions. To it, the fruit owes its delicate texture and flavor, and the turf its springiness and color.

Britain is a geologist’s paradise. All periods in history are to be found in its earth-from the recent chalk hills to the early rocks of mountain. These various kinds of earth show in the beech-woods and the smooth turf of the rolling Downs of southern England, in the rich soil of the river valleys that feeds the crops and orchards, or provides pastureland for the dairy industry. Farming on a big scale has carved up much of the land into fields divided by hedgerows or stone fences which give the British countryside its distinctive look. A great area of Britain was once clad in ancient “high forest” but the last 2000 years of occupation have stripped much of this away. The great industrial cities are found for the most part round the

ore and coal regions in the Midlands and the North. The main ports and shipbuilding yards lie by the natural habor.

The British are a race of mixed peoples. There is, however, a strong unity, of common interests and a way life linked by one language. In England and Southern Scotland, the earliest people, known as the Ancient Britons (after the prehistoric period) were followed by the Danes from Scandinavia. These are, of course, other local mixture found today in the Scots, the Irish and the Welsh, together with those from Yorkshire or Lancashire, all proud of their beginnings but all uniting to form a solid group loyal to their country. Great Britain has produced such persons as the Duke of Wellington, the famous soldier who defeated Napoleon, and William Shakespeare, the top writer of plays. The British are known for their kindly feelings which shows itself in understanding, dislike of cruelty and oppression and a distrust of extremes. When the nation is threatened, the people are very strong in resistance. The average Briton does not believe in extremes. He is saved from them by a sound common sense that shows itself more particularly in a tolerance, in a willingness to meet objections, and if need be, in an agreement to disagree. The average Briton is calm and cool in time of trial. This showed itself on the last war under ceaseless bombings. The British temper has been well described in this term “phlegmatic as Anglo, or English phlegm”.

The British were never a stay-at-home race. Their record in exploration and colonization is a remarkable one. The spread of the English language and of British traditions of democracy over five continents is the proof of their venture and of the strength of British civilization. Britain is renowned for its great literary tradition. It is the birthright of over two hundred million people throughout the world whose mother tongue is English, the Canterbury Tales, Hamlet, Paradise Lost, the Ode to a Nightingale, to name only a few of its treasures, are theirs. Nor is that tradition dead today. There are few fields of study in which British names do not appear in the forefront. Thirty-seven scientists have received Nobel Prize awards – the highest world honor that can be accorded to any scientist. Gart wright’s power loom, driven by water, and Hargreaves’s spinning jenny opened the way for the modern mass production of textiles. Steel is produced by process named after Sir Henry Bessemer. The electrical developments of the press-button age owe much to the researches of Michael Faraday. Newton was among the leading mathematicians studying the nature of the universe. In the study of life and of man, Darwin’s name is outstanding, while in medicine and surgery many advances have been due to Briton such as William Harvery, discoverer of the circulation of the blood. Lord Lister, the founder of antiseptic surgery, and sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin. It is likely due to a sporting spirit, carried over into everyday life, that

has made Britain a Power. Not a day passes but you will hear in ordinary use the term “a good sport”, “a sporting chance”, “fair play”.

Where home life is concerned, the Briton would much rather have a house than a flat. He likes to lead his own life in his own way and feels that a house in a permanent thing so he builds himself a flower garden and a lawn. The number of property owners who live in their own houses is growing. The majority of British people are Protestants, but there are also many Roman Catholics. There are opportunities for all in Britain. There has been a great leveling of the classes, especially upward, in Britain society and poverty has for the most part been done away with. Wealth and birth are no longer the only way by which one may reach the top in society. No society in the world is as well-organized as that of Britain. Today there is one big scheme of social services to which all contribute and by which all benefit. It is not charity but is a sound away of providing social security, health and freedom. National Insurance, family allowances, and national assistance cover the whole population for the basic necessities from birth to burial.

Britain is a country of industry and commerce. In the 19th century she was known as the “workshop of the world” Britain has today special links with many countries. Although she has developed interest in all parts of the world, Britain has always kept close ties with the free world. In peace and war alike, Britain has always taken the side of those who are interested solely in “progress and freedom for all” as Sir Winston Churchill put it in one of his speeches. With improved trade and with firm friends at her side, Britain faces the future with growing confidence

23./ How should people protect and preserve the natural resources?

Conservation concerns men’s safeguarding and preservation of natural resources and his responsibility for improving the environmental conditions in which he lives. An important task of conservation is the prevention of waste – waste of forests, soil, minerals, wildlife and human life.

Trees help to preserve land because their roots bind the soil and retain water. Without trees, heavy rains will cause soil erosion and the remaining land becomes poor and worthless. Terrible floods often occur in the areas where trees are cut down in great quantity. Forest conservation also means the prevention of bush fires and the attention to planting and looking after new, young trees.

Not only should man preserve forests but he should also realize the importance of

wildlife protection. Unless governments have a good system of control or pass laws restricting the hunting, fishing and eradicating of rare animals and plants, they slowly disappear.

Natural resources such as coal, gas and mineral ores are limited but the need for them is growing day by day. As they may not last for a century, man should use them widely on the one hand, and look for alternative fuels on the other hand.

Another serious problem threatening human life is the dirtying and poisoning of air and water. This pollution is mainly caused by the fumes, chemicals and wastes from automobiles, industries and homes.

It is hoped that for his own benefit, man can soon find a solution to these problems.

24./ Talk about the country you would like to visit.

I have heard much about the beauty of the East as well as the West, about the wonderful islands in the Pacific and also in the Atlantic. In short, the whole world seems to be full of beautiful places. The country that I would like to visit, however, is the United States of America.

My knowledge of the United States of America is derived from the geography and history books that I have read, the films that I have seen and the stories that I have heard from people who have visited this country.

The United States of America is a vast country with a mixed population. People from many different lands have come and settled here. This mixture of different races of people with different customs, religions, cultures and abilities have created a nation unique in history. Although this country has a very short history compared with that of the other large countries in the world, it is an example to the world of how people of different races could live together in peace and harmony. The exchange of ideas among the people of so many racial origins here has contributed greatly to the progress and prosperity of the nation. There are world famous scientists, doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers and politicians whose original homes were in many different lands. The work of such men has made this country a wonderful land indeed. The roads, buildings and cinemas here may be said to be the best in the world. There are many places and things of interest such as Hollywood, the United Nations building, Niagara Falls and the sky-scrapers. Even the natural vegetation and features are rich in variety. If one travels across the land,

one will find different kinds of scenery in different places. Further, as the people here still follow their original customs and traditions, one will also have the feeling that one is passing through many different countries.

The people of the United States are proud of their country, for it was their country that gave the modern world ideas of freedom. The name of Abraham Lincoln will always be remembered by those who believe in the freedom of men. It was the United States, again, who saved the world from destruction in two world wars. Such a country must be a wonderful land, and it is for this reason that I would like to visit this country some day

26./ Nowadays, everybody is very fond of learning a foreign language. However, successful men are seldom. In your opinion, what is the basic factor?

The most difficult thing for a person to accept when he begins to learn a foreign language is that the foreign language is so different from his own. Of course, he expects to find some differences; it may sometimes seem to him that some of the differences are completely unnecessary.

A person’s native language has a powerful influence on him. After all, he has been speaking his language since before he can remember. His family, his friends, even complete strangers – everyone around him uses that language. Under such circumstances, it is only natural that a person would have the feeling that his language is the most beautiful, the most perfect and the most logical of all languages.

Therefore, the first thing that one must learn as he begins to study a foreign language is that, each language is the best possible language for the people who use it. We would not expect a person from India to think and act exactly like a person from France. And we should not expect the languages of India to be exactly like the French language. After this fact has been understood and accepted, many of the problems in language learning disappear.

There are other attitudes which you will have to develop in order to learn a language successfully. The most important of these is that learning a language requires constant practice. You must not think that because you have seen or heard a word or phrase one time, or five times or ten times, that you really know it and know how to use it. You must be ready to repeat new lessons again until you can

really use them, automatically, without having to think about them.

Many students have the idea that if they can memorize long list of vocabulary words they will be learning the language. Learning a language is much more than that. In the early stage of studying a language, we must learn more important things, such as pronunciation and grammatical structure. After the student can use the grammatical structure, he can then begin to increase his vocabulary. Learning new vocabulary without knowing the grammatical structure of the language is something like trying to build a house without using a plan.

Another important thing to remember is that it is not necessary to begin with a lot of reading or writing in the foreign language. Reading and writing lead to many very special problems which may complicate learning for the beginning student.

The most important thing of all in learning a language is to have patience. If you keep working steadily, day after day, constantly practicing the language and using it at every opportunity, you will learn to speak a language well.

27./ Which language do you think has made the greatest contribution to the promotion of better understanding among the people of the world?

The human race is divided by a multiplicity of languages, many of which have come to play an important part in the affairs of the world.

A little reflection reveals that the importance of a language is associated mainly with the ideas and knowledge it contains. The more ideas a language can convey to the people of the world, the more it will be used by people everywhere. Thus, the language that is used most extensively is the language that makes the greatest contribution to human progress and mutual understanding between people.

It cannot be denied that today the most widely used language is the English language. There are few countries in which this language is not understood or used. Even the countries which preached hatred for everything English, including the English language, during their struggle for independence from British rule such as India, found it difficult to dispense with this language after they became independent. Therefore, they not only continued to use English in all spheres of public activity but also began to encourage the use and study of the English language as means of achieving national progress and unity. These efforts on the part of the various countries of the world convey an idea of the importance of the

English language.

It would be instructive, however, to consider the reason for the extensive use of the English language. One of the reasons is that several countries in the world have been occupied mainly by immigrants from England such as the United States of America, Australia and New Zealand. It is therefore not surprising that the people of such countries have continued to use the English language, though they have severed their independent status, for one cannot discard one’s language easily. Another reason is that, in the course of history, a large number of countries throughout the world came directly under British rule, where English was made the main language for administrative, commercial and all other purposes.

As the leading colonial power in the world, England has indeed exerted a profound influence on the affairs of the world, though its colonial possessions are rapidly becoming independent one after the other. Concomitantly, the English language too has come to play a leading role in international communication. Thus, many people whose native language is not English have studied English and become more conversant with English than with their own languages. This is especially true with the leaders of the people to whom English is a foreign language. As a result, the English language is used by them not only in the administration of their countries but also in all their institutions of higher learning.

The most important reason for the pre-eminence of the English language, however, is that it is the source of all knowledge. The Industrial Revolution that began in England and spread to other countries revealed the English genius for invention. Even the political and social institutions of England, which were affected tremendously by the Industrial Revolution, have evoked the admiration of all countries. The knowledge, ideas, experiences and profound thoughts of the English people have made a deep impression on the minds of the people of other countries. Innumerable books have been written in the English language on all branches of study, and such is the thirst of English scholars for knowledge and their desire to communicate it, that they have even translated books of great value from other language to English for the benefit of all. Writers of other nationalities too have written a great number of books in English and made a substantial contribution to the enrichment of the English language. As a result of all these efforts, the English language has become the main avenue to the greatest storehouse of information. Therefore, people everywhere have developed a special respect for the language and they continue to learn it with avidity.

As the English language is used so extensively, it is mainly in this language that

the people of the world communicate with and understand one another. No other language has such a wide appeal. In my opinion, it is the English language that has made the greatest contribution to the promotion of the better understanding among the people of the world.

28./ The difficulties in learning English and how to overcome them

Beginners of foreign language always meet difficulties from the outset. For me, I had to overcome these problems when I started learning English.

English pronunciation is my first obstacle. The pronunciation in English puzzles me a lot because the same letter has different sounds. For example the letter “a” in “bath” is not pronounced in the same way of that in “bathe”. The “ou” in “South” is also different from “ou” in “Southern”. Generally verbs and nouns are pronounced differently although they are written the same. Record is a good example to illustrate it.

In order to solve this puzzling question I carefully study The A.P.A (The International Phonetic Alphabets) which helps me pronounce English words correctly.

In order to have an accent just like the native speakers, I often listen to tapes and repeat after them, trying to imitate them. Moreover, my everyday conversation with the foreigners I meet in the street will enable me to acquire a proper accent.

Compared with French, English grammar is much easier. However, this does not mean that learners meet no difficulties in learning it. It took me a long time to learn how to master the tenses in English grammar, to endeavor to do as many grammar exercises as possible and read various grammar books.

In writing English, English language has its own style. In order to drill writing skills, I have tried to read famous novels of distinguished America and English writers. I enjoy the humorous style of writing in Mark Twain’s masterpieces, the elaborate and polished style of George Eliot and the sentimental and lyrical style of John Keats.

After long and hard years of English study, how pleased I feel when I am able to read English and American authors without any obstacles and difficulties at all.

29./ Games can help to learn a foreign language(The beneficial effects of games on language learning)

Games have long been used in foreign language teaching but some teachers and students may still view them with suspicion. They may think that games are just a waste of time or just a means of filling in, for example, the last fifteen or ten minutes of a class period. However, a thorough understanding of the relative merits and uses of language games will dispel such misconceptions. In fact, the use of games proves to be a good idea because of its following major contributions to the teaching and learning of foreign languages.

First, games can increase the amount of student practice and participation. As games are often played in pairs or teams they create favorable conditions for pair work or group work to take place. Since these two forms of student grouping provide students with more opportunity to use the language (with students initiating their turns-at-talk instead of waiting for them to be nominated by the teacher) it is right to say that games intended for groups of two or more than two students can increase student talking time. As far as second or foreign language acquisition is concerned, any increase in student talking time, big or small, is significant because it will help develop students’ language competence.

Second, games can generate and increase motivation, a vital factor to students’ success in language learning. A common reason for the use of games in language teaching is that they are an effective ways to interest students. Indeed, games are capable of involving students if they are entertaining, intriguing and challenging. And nearly all learners enjoy playing games or want to have fun while studying regardless of their age or level. To play games students have to rely on themselves and cooperate among themselves. It is the principle of self-reliance, cooperation and joint learning that awakes and maintains students’ interest in the lesson. As interest is a main ingredient of motivation it can be concluded that games contribute much to providing motivation to students. And of course, once students are highly motivated, they will likely study better.

Most importantly, games give meaningful practice in any of the four skills at any level of ability or in any stage of the teaching process. It is true that a library search will yield a great number of games that have been designed for students at different levels from elementary to advanced. Moreover, these games are intended for the practice of the four skills, namely reading, speaking, listening and writing. In addition, games can be used at any stage in language teaching and learning as warm-up activities or activities aimed at accurate reproduction and controlled or

free practice. Some well-known or commonly used books of games are Communication Games series compiled by Jill Hadfield for three different levels: elementary, intermediate and advanced; Reading Games and Writing Games, both by Charles and Jill Hadfield directed at intermediate to advanced learners of Eglish; Play Games with English Henemann series including games, puzzles and quizzes for beginners and pre-intermediate learners. What is more important, games create meaningful contexts for language practice. Initially, students have to make sure that they understand the rules of the game. This requires reading or listening comprehension of the instructions as set out in the book or explained by the teacher. Subsequently, students have to discuss with their friends to solve the problem presented by the game. They have to use the language they are learning to express their opinions and to exchange ideas to reach their goal. Most of the time, their communication is based on an information gap or opinion gap, thus replicating real life communication. Games are therefore said to provide meaningful practice as students have to read, listen, speak and write for a clear purpose.

In conclusion, the analysis above shows that language games make significant contributions to students’ learning a foreign language. The value of language games lies not only in the great number of games that have been invented or in the variety of levels they serve but in the useful and purposeful language practice they provide. That is why teachers should make optimal use of games in their language teaching to increase students’ work and motivation and to offer them meaningful practice. Provided that teachers can select or design and organize good games in terms of language and type of participation, they will achieve these worthy aims.

30./ Why examinations are important

The outline:1. Students’ feelings towards examination2. Why they are important3. Why they are interesting4. What should be the correct feeling towards them5. The end

Most students are afraid of examinations, but examinations are very important today. They are also very interesting.

Examinations are important because they compel students to learn. Without them

most students would not learn. So they would know very little about the world. They would learn only subjects in which they are interested and ignore the other subjects which are thought to be difficult, though they are very important in the modern age.

Examinations also help us have some ideas about a person’s knowledge of certain subjects. For example, if a boy has passed the Primary Six Examination, we can at once know how much knowledge he has. Accordingly, we can have some ideas of what kind of work he can do. This is why most employers want to know what examinations a person had passed before he is given some work.

Finally, examinations are interesting because we can test how much we ourselves know. When we sit for an examination we enjoy answering what we know, though we feel sad if we are not successful in an examination.

31./ What would be to your mind an ideal education system?

A country is weak or powerful, which depends on its education system. Realizing the important role of education in life, Ho Chi Minh, in one of his speeches on education, said: “For the sake of ten years’ benefits, plant trees; for the sake of one hundred years’ benefits, educate people.”

An ideal education system must try to carry out the following aims.

First, training human personality both mentally and physically is important. It is said that a sound mind is in a healthy body. The morality and the quality of a man must be the main concern of the Department of Education.

Second, schools must be connected closely with families and society. Schools must always encourage pupils’ families to cooperate in educating their children.

Third, the practical side of education must be emphasized. An ideal education system must not be entirely theoretical; on the contrary, theory must be linked up with practice. Besides the cultivation of knowledge for young generations, ideal education must train them to have great capacity and skills so that they are ready to make steady progress in life.

Fourth, society is more and more developed; therefore, textbooks and curriculums must be often supplemented in accordance with present and future needs.

Fifth, training and tempering a passionate love for one’s country in every citizen’s heart, ready to serve their country in peacetime and to fight courageously to protect their fatherland in wartime. The examples of sacrifice of our heroes in the past as well as in the present must be introduced through textbooks in elementary schools.

Sixth, training and forming educators, teachers and professors of good conduct and high quality, teaching and educating students and pupils to hold their teachers in the greatest veneration and respect. Furthering the traditions to respect teachers and esteem morality highly in every class of people.